By Sara Fuller
Special to Front Porch

In Arkansas, rice is big business. In fact, the Arkansas Rice Research & Promotion Board says the state produces about 45 percent of all rice grown in the United States.

Rice is a big business for Tom Wimpy also. He and his family grow rice and soybeans in Poinsett, Jackson and Cross counties in Northeast Arkansas. Their operation consists of 4,500 acres, part of which they own, and part they rent.

Tom’s father Ralph originally started the family farm in 1938. Today, Tom farms with his brother Jerry and his nephews, Bradley and Cameron.

“Much of the rice that we harvest is marketed through Riceland Foods,” Tom says.

They also store some of their harvested grain in farm bins and market some of their crop to other industry processors.

Tom has strong roots in the Harrisburg area. He lived there most of his life and graduated from Harrisburg High School. Afterward, he went to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agronomy.

After college, Tom worked in the farm industry a time for Dow AgroScience in California, Michigan and Georgia. Then, he returned to Harrisburg to farm with his family.

Tom believes the farm bill is one of the biggest concerns facing agriculture in the near future.

“It’s important for commodities to have firm and fair pricing,” he says. “It’s also important for agriculture to have a good support net in case of changes in the economy.”

Over the years, Tom has seen producers expand their operations in an effort to make their farm more economical. Today’s farming practices focus on minimum or no tillage, which benefit both the environment and the pocketbook. No-till, as it is called, allows farmers to plant crops on the same land used for the last season’s crop, with fewer trips across the soil.

Producers also employ minimal extra labor to increase their efficiency. Today, the Wimpy family employs one other family to work fulltime on their farm.

The Wimpys share the responsibility for their farm, and everyone pitches in to make the operation successful. Tom handles most of the paperwork, while his brother and nephews take care of the daily operation.

In addition to working on the farm, Tom has “had the opportunity,” he says, to serve the community as a former city councilman and school board director.

He also is a former director of Farm Credit Mid-South and currently is on the boards of Poinsett Conservation District and the L’Anguille River Watershed and Arkansas Watershed coalitions — and for more than 30 years, he was on the board of Poinsett County Farm Bureau.

Tom belongs to Harrisburg First United Methodist Church and has been on the advisory board of the Salvation Army, Jonesboro Corp, for more than 20 years.

Tom believes one of the greatest blessings of farm life is the ability to work with his family — and that family includes not only his bother and nephews, but his wife Carol, five children and 13 grandchildren.

The Wimpys have, indeed, been long-time members of Northeast Arkansas’ farming community. With Tom playing a major role, the family is continuing to work together with farmers all across the state to ensure that Arkansas remains a leader in the nation’s agriculture.